The arrival of Rhyler
Chapter 1: Infected! Rhyler adjusted his spacesuit as he glanced at the status screen. Pressure had been lost completely to 3 of the 5 cargo decks. He pulled up the thermal readings. A huge number of warm entities were moving towards the crew quarters. Alarms blared, and lights flashed, bathing the corridor in red light. This could not be happening. He rushed down the corridor, sealing every hatch behind him. He finally reached the bridge. It was eerily quiet, as all of the crew were dead. Rhyler stopped and rubbed his temples. The ship had been halted the day before, when some issues with the onboard networking arose. Rhyler was deep in the bowels of the ship running CAT5 hypercyber cable while the rest of the crew were checking the cargo holds and the chief engineers were tuning the hypercore. When Rhyler emerged from the access tunnel, there was no one to be seen. His interlink communicator hadn't been working while the network was down, so he went and looked in the main cargo hold. He could not believe what met his eyes. Every crew member was dead, and being consumed by space locusts . Where could they have come from?! He froze as one of the locusts saw him. Its fangs glistened with blood and mucus as it alerted its brethren to Rhyler's presence. Rhyler ran to the door and sealed it behind him. Dozerns of locusts thrashed against the door as rhyler struggled to turn the locking mechanism. He dashed to his quarters, and grabbed his storage pack. It contained his few belongings and inventions. He then ran to the armoury. He grabbed a couple of laser pistols, and a laser carbine. These ones had a 10MW violet pulse diode that could put a hole through almost anything. He also collected some power cartridges. Now for armour. He unlocked a cabinet containing his uberARM v3,0. It had a black and green paint job, and with it, he could survive for up to 5 weeks in space. Its Creatinium shell could withstand lasers, lava, plasma and most magic. After stepping into it, he put on the helmet, which then retracted around his neck. He walked carefully to the bridge, laser carbine brandished. He entered the bridge to reach where he was now. Rhyler opened his eyes. He had to land somewhere, fast. He stepped over to the command console and typed. > Find planets The computer hummed as it analysed his query. The computer beeped and a result came up. Planets distance=ship=<100000km Aef Frados Walcox Rhyler typed. Aef getinfo The computer pinged as it returned info. Aef: Educational institution, non-hostile. Landing>recommended Rhyler typed frantically. It would have to do. Setcourse=Aef The engines roared into life and the ground rumbled. Rhyler pulled up the heat map again. Thermalmap=open The locusts were on the move, breaching hatches as they rampaged, hungry for flesh. Rhyler made the decision. He would jettison the cargo in the infected hold, hopefully sucking some locusts out. cargohold2=jettison safetyprotocol=false There was a roar as several tonnes of cargo were sucked out into deep space. The heat map showed far fewer locusts. The hatch sealed, and the ship continued its journey to Aef. Chapter 2: Crash. 'Sir, you should see this.' an officer said to Goldas. Goldas walked over to the radar screen. A ship was approaching the planet at a crazy speed, too fast to land safely. 'They're going to crash...' muttered Goldas. 'Start emergency lockdown!' The officer pressed a button, and alarms all over the planet began to blare. Buildings rearranged to form a clear area for the ship to land. 'Let's hope they don't miss.' said Goldas as the radar blip grew closer. Rhyler gritted his teeth as Aef grew closer. He saw a big, flat space beginning to form on the planet's surface. Alarms blared, warning Rhyler to pull up. The ship's rangefinder's digits whirred. 10 km, 9, 8... Rhyler ducked out of the bridge into a storeroom and braced himself. The beeping from the command console grew louder, until... BOOM! The entire ship thrashed as it rent a gouge across the planet, spraying debris everywhere. Rhyler held onto a shelf, knuckles white, as the ship slowly ground to a halt. A pulsing alert echoed through the ship, warning of a fire spreading. Rhyler ran down the corridor to the main crew exit. He pulled at the handle. Jammed. He pounded upon the metal hatch, as fire licked its way up the corridor. A face appeared in the door's small viewport, and there was a bang as a charge detonated on the outside of the door. Rhyler swung the door open. A man stood there, surrounded by others. Firefighting droids were descending upon the blazing ship. The man stretched out his hand. 'Goldas,' he said. 'King of this planet.' Rhyler retracted his suit's helmet, and shook Goldas' hand. 'My name is Rhyler.' he said. 'My ship was infected with space locusts, but I managed to jettison them.' Goldas signalled to a nearby scanner to check the ship for locusts. 'Is there any more crew?' Goldas asked. Rhyler looked sullen. 'When I jettisoned the locusts, I also jettisoned my dead crew.' Goldas led Rhyler away from the ship to a small speeder. 'We would be happy to offer you a place on Aef.' Goldas said as he tried to start the speeder. A grating sound filled the air. 'I can fix that.' Rhyler said. Chapter 3: Campus After Rhyler got the speeder up and running, Goldas and Rhyler made their way back to the Aef campus. 'You would get along really well with James and George.' Goldas said. 'They are also inventors. But we could definitely use someone with your skills.' The speeder stopped outside one of the main buildings. 'Let me show you your quarters, and the rest of the campus.' Category:Aef Category:Rhyler Category:Space Category:History Category:Backstory Category:Stories